1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote control device which utilizes a track pad as one of the pointing devices.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Remote control operations by a remote control device shown in FIG. 41 have been widely performed, when electronic apparatuses equipped with display devices such as a TV set and the like are operated by utilizing the remote control device.
Recently a system in which a TV set, a VTR set, a stereophonic set and the like are mutually connected via a network interface prescribed by IEEE1394 and they are controlled by a remote control system equipped in the TV set, is proposed. In the above-mentioned system, operating panels of other sets not equipped with display units, are displayed on a display unit of the TV set.
In the above-mentioned system it is necessary to control operations of a plurality of sets by one remote control device attached to a control unit such as the TV set or the like.
In this case the remote control device shown in FIG. 41 is widely employed as a means for operating various sets having different functions simply and uniformly. A desired operation is selected such that a cursor is moved by up/down or left/right moving keys of the remote control device and the selected operation is executed by an execution key of the remote control device, which is a usual operating steps by the conventional remote control device.
However, since several pushing operations of the cursors are required before selecting the desired operation in the above-mentioned remote control device, a considerable time is required for selecting steps so that a good maneuverability can not be attained.
A remote control device, which employs a track pad capable of inputting on position data and selecting a desired key by tracing a finger on the track pad, is proposed so as to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks.
However, since the above-mentioned remote control device can not identify a currently connected set (an operational panel to be displayed) and a proper operational method and when shapes of the operational panel to be displayed and the track pad are different, there remain the following drawbacks to be solved.
a) A positional relation between the track pad and the operating panel is not clear.
b) When a whole area of the track pad is allocated to the operational panel, operational feelings differ in up/down direction and left/right direction.
c) When a numeric panel for selecting a TV channel and a full key board panel are spread on a track pad with the same size, moving speeds of keys on the respective operational panels corresponding to a moving speed of the finger are quite different, particularly the moving speed of the full key board panel is too fast to operate so that a maneuverability of the track pad is poor.
Although Japanese laid open patent No. 10-11288 proposes a remote control method utilizing the track pad, it is not such an invention capable of solving the above-mentioned drawbacks.